Meet Sacha Baron Cohen's Bus at SDSU!

It's not the first time a prop bus was sent on tour. While vacationing in Los Angeles in 1977, I had the privilege of meeting the bullet-riddled bus that Clint Eastwood drove through the streets of Phoenix during the climax of the The Gauntlet.

Whether or not the tour bus plays a pivotal role in Sacha Baron Cohen's upcoming The Dictator is yet to be seen. If you crave a brush with motor coach greatness, The Dictator college bus tour crash lands at San Diego State University this Wednesday, May 2.

Here are some of the many perks the visiting bus offers:

• We’ll be asking students to sign a petition that declares them pro-dictatorship, anti-democracy.

• Our team aboard the bus will have iPads demonstrating the new Dictator iPad application.

• Food will be served on board and advertised in a fun way such as hummus served up as Camel Toe pate.

• Students will have the opportunity to take their photo in front of a green screen which will produce an image that looks like a postcard from the non-existent but real sounding kingdom of Wadiya.

• The image will be immediately sent to the student allowing them to post to their Facebook and twitter.

• We'll have cute Virgin Guards on board that will be serving food, helping with the iPad game demonstration, on hand to take pictures with and just being them cute selves.

• Our team will be distributing a Wadiya travel brochure.

• Aboard the bus, students will have the opportunity to go on one of the Android devices to buy their movie tickets for opening day!

By the time Borat was released, I had already seen 5 advance preview showings. As of today, no screening date has been set for The Dictator. (That's not a good sign.) Will it be another critical and commercial sensation like Borat or something more along the lines of Cohen's disappointing followup, Bruno?

The coming attraction contains a few solid chuckles. Let's hope that unlike Bruno, all of the laughs aren't contained in the trailer.

Comments

Throughout 1979, those of us who lived in the Chicagoland area were treated to the filming of the circus known as "The Blues Brothers". Almost every other night, a local TV station showed the lastest stunt filmed downtown with cop cars and property damage.

My brother drove me one summer night to the Dixie Square Mall and we watched the Bluesmobile twice drive through JCPenney's window as they filmed it.

Upon its release in June, 1980, the River Oaks theaters in suburban Calumet City (home of the Blues Brothers) went all out. They acquired a demolished cop car and prominently displayed it outside of its theater. Yeah, people gathered around this junked car and stared at it for hours on end.